Anne Wheeler
Communications Director
LBJ Library & Museum
2313 Red River Street
Austin, TX 78705
Office) 512.721.0216
Cell) 512.731.2351
Fax) 512.721.0170
awheeler@lbjfoundation.org
FOR RELEASE JUNE 13, 2011
The Pentagon Papers are released to the public – 40 years to the day after they were leaked.
The 7,000-page report on the Vietnam War, historical documents, and a videotaped personal remembrance by former LBJ Library Director Harry Middleton of LBJ's desire to open all archival materials are available at the LBJ Library and on its website www.lbjlibrary.org.
What: Press Conference
When: Monday, June 13, 2011, 11:00 A.M. CDT
Where: LBJ Library - Brown Room, 10th Floor 2313 Red River St.
www.lbjlibrary.org/about-us/plan-your-visit.html
Press materials:
- Pentagon Papers will be on display.
- DVD of interview with former LBJ Library Director Harry Middleton on LBJ's desire to open materials
- Historical photos and documents
- LBJ Library archivists are available for interviews.
Where: (Austin) – Freedom Riders is a national traveling exhibit that tells the powerful, harrowing and inspirational civil rights story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. Organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and PBS’s flagship history series, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, this exhibit combines photography and news coverage of the Rides, as well as first-hand audio accounts of this dangerous experiment in the fight for civil rights.
From May to November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives – many endured savage beatings and imprisonment – for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders’ belief in non-violent activism was tested as mob violence and bitter racism greeted them along the way. This exhibit examines the 1961 Freedom Rides and its legacy today.